Sure: it took a few months, but thanks to the generosity of the MG Experience forum members, I was able to remove the starter motor, dismantle it, replace the broken "anchor plate", reassemble the starter motor, get it back in the car, and have it all working again with a minimum of foul language. It's a miracle!

This being my first MG repair (we'd had excellent mechanics back in Vancouver and Victoria), I thought I'd record some observations to hopefully help others facing a similar project. Keep in mind that this the perspective of someone who has only ever worked on American iron of the '50s and '60s.

My goodness, the MG engineers sure jammed everything in there, didn't they? Removing the bendix-type starter motor required removing the distributor and the stock '67, i.e. inverted oil filter canister. Removing almost anything from my '52 Chev is a simple, short job, but not so with Rosebud. It seemed that everything required both a strategy and a tool that would fit in those very confined spaces. Sometimes the tools had to be invented, especially the ones required to remove the securing pin at the end of the bendix shaft and the three (very different) spring clips that hold the rest of the bendix mechanism together. More on that later

Here are the bits of advice from forum members that helped the most:

1) Take lots and lots of photos and videos for future reference. Even if you only need some of them later, the rest will give you priceless peace of mind and self-assurance when doubts start to creep in (and they will).

2) Make a temporary alignment mark on the distributor mounting plate and the engine block. Don't loosen the distributor adjustment screw: just remove the two mounting plate bolts (easier said than done) and pull the distributor out of the engine. But before doing that, mark the spark plug wire wire locations, and remove the cap and record the rotor orientation. This makes it easier to get the distributor to mate with the engine when everything's going back together. The cam is keyed so it can only go in one way, but there's not much play in it, so having the rotor set to the right general starting point makes it a simpler matter. Just apply a tiny amount of pressure to the distributor when you want to get it in that final 1/8", then turn the rotor slightly back and forth until you can feel that it has found the notches in the mating cam. Then you can give it a slightly firmer push, and in she goes.

3) There are so many variations to these cars that others' descriptions of how they removed this or that may not apply. In my (wife's) car, the (bendix-type) starter motor needed to be moved straight toward the front of the engine, then have its connection-end dropped as soon as the bendix mechanism was getting clear of the flywheel, then be pulled out vertically from the top of the car. It took some doing because the bendix mechanism clearance hole on the flywheel housing is none too generous, EVERYTHING is snug under that bonnet, and the starter motor is heavy and only about a foot off the ground - an awkward position for a taller guy.

4) Don't lube the bendix with grease, oil, or WD40 - use dry graphite only! Mine required a lot of de-gunking (it hangs out in space under the car, after all), but tested beautifully out of the car once it was cleaned up, graphited, reassembled, and graphited some more.

A couple of bendix disassembly and reassembly steps were not clear from the legacy exploded-view diagram. They are:

1) The pin drifted in to the end of the starter motor shaft is CONICAL. It only goes in one way, and from only one side.

2) The gap on the first retaining spring must be oriented so that clears the end of the above pin. If you don't do this, it won't sit properly in its notch.

And here's a tip that really helped me get the last / smallest retaining spring out: use a pair of small needle-nose vise grips to stop the retainer from spinning in its slot when you're trying to remove or reinstall it. And: not having a spring-clip tool, I used the tips of a pair of pointed miniature wire cutters (the kind you use in electronics work) to spread the gap in the clip wide enough that I could pry one end free of its notch with a small slot screwdriver. (I apologize if this kind of Gilligan's Island engineering makes anyone wince. This was a zero-budget repair with a very limited set of tools.)

Last but definitely not least, top-drawer kudos to Jon Worden of Texas who went to all the trouble to ship me the anchor plate I needed (to Hungary!), asking only for the shipping charges in return. I was already a huge fan of this forum, but that was a lifesaver of mammoth proportions. The look on my wife's face when she was able to start her car for the first time in six months was priceless. Jon, expect a free tour of Budapest in the city's only (?) BGT if you're ever in town!